Session 13 - New Friends, New Enemies
At the conclusion of the Championship of Excelsion, half-orc fighter Phryne is crowned this year's Champion, with half-air spirit Aubrey as the runner up. Phryne spends the day basking in the attention with Aubrey and the human cleric Edlee looking on sullenly. Phryne returns to her rooms in the Baths of 1000 Reprieves before meeting with dwarven mercenary Veit Rummenheim. She found a note from tiefling sorcerer Vanderjesus that read: I am going underground. The Dark Lanterns will light the way. I leave you a boon. Goodbye my companions. ''-Vanderjesus'' The sorcerer left her companions a small sack of gold and the ring gifted to them from the forest spirit in the west near their home. She had also included her Treatise on Tealstone, all of the information she had gathered on the mysterious material to that point. That evening, Victor is in a state of total inebriation with everyone drinking to the Champion, to Excelsion and to the health of the Magistrate. All sense of order and proprietary is lost. The revelries are mostly centred around the Silver Ring, the Plaza of the Strong and the Docks. The few guards who aren’t join in are pressed to the breaking point. Veit meets the heroes on a side street just off of the much quieter Golden Ring, a district that is mostly dedicated to high class businesses and manors of the rich. He is accompanied by an associate named Haevan, a half-elf bard of some renown in Victor's underworld. Aubrey and Edlee recognize him from the Baths. They walked along ending with the Royal Plaza, a stretch of gardens between the palace and the royal manor. Their mission: to break into the house of the Lord of Victor to find evidence of her link to goblin mining activity in the area. Veit took in the sight of the manor house: “Alright my friends… how do you want to do this?” Phryne, Aubrey, Edlee and Haevan send Veit and their dog around the front to cause a distraction while they sneak through the servants quarters off the main road. When Edlee hears signs of the distraction they move to the entrance to the servants quarters. Haevan attempts to pick the lock but finds it too complex to work so quickly. Instead Phryne attempts to kick the door open. She instead puts her foot clear through the door, causing a commotion from the servants within. As her companions fumble to free her, four guards show up. A brief battle ensues, Haevan lobs off a sleeping song spell into the kitchen before firing a crossbow shot, then dropping his weapon and drawing his rapier. Edlee attempts to battle alongside him but throws his sword away accidentally. Aubrey uses his elemental power to blast a guard away before charging into battle with his totem quarterstaff flying like the wind. Phryne charges straight for the lead guard with her mighty trident. They trade blows and Phryne is downed once, but revived by Edlee's healing powers. She's downed again, revived once more before finally dropping the guards, although one manages to flee. Edlee manages to wrestle the head guard into submission and the companions knock him out. They find three servants within the kitchens, two older women and a young boy, just starting to wake up from the effects of the spell. Haevan ties them up and the heroes bribe the child with gold and find out that Lord Cecilia, the human ruler of Victor, has a bedroom and study on the third floor. They sneak into the servants quarters and find the house mostly empty, until they come to a bedroom on the third floor. Haevan has Phryne kick the door open and they find a beautiful, half-naked elven woman Haevan recognizes as Lady Aeolia of the House Dirthrae, a noble elven house in Victor who he recalls are positioning her for a position as a diplomat in the Directorate. He casts a sleeping spell on her and ties her up in bed with the help of Phryne before they search the rooms, finding Lord Cecilia's study. Within they find a safe that, after some time, Haevan manages to crack. They find some gold, some elven jewelry, a phial of magical fire liquid and two contracts with the seal of Lord Cecilia, signed by Master Ghazek of Felsic and Lady Aevara, the Magistrate of Victor. One of the contracts outlines a deal signed by Lord Cecilia about a decade ago which outlines a trial system where the Felsic Combine will purchase the contracts of Victor’s non-magical criminals and require them to serve their sentence through labour. The second contract, signed a few months ago, ratifies the first on a permanent basis, and promises a sum of 100,000 gold towards two new “factories” in the Hadriaca Highlands, in which Cecilia will become a partner with a 30% share in each, and will receive annual recompense from the profits. The heroes hear a commotion from below and decide to leave immediately. Phryne ties off some rope and slips out of the manor house easily. Haevan threatens Aeolia that she has been recognized by "Thicket," before escaping with Edlee and Aubrey following. They traversed the partying city and located Veit Rummenheim in his rooms at Molli Mae's. Veit read the documents and seemed vindicated and deeply upset by their contents, explaining that this is what he'd been searching for for almost a decade. He suggested they speak with Lady Aevara, who he revealed as his employer, in the morning, but the heroes insisted they'd speak with her immediately, and they again pressed through the crowds to find themselves at the Directorate manor house on the opposite side of Gold Ring from the Royal manor. After dealing with a snooty steward they were ushered into a parlour and met Lady Aevara, a tall, lean, olive-skinned, silver haired elven woman, elegant looking, clearly an elven woman of some age. She recognized Phryne and Aubrey from the Championship, introduced herself to Haevan and Edlee, then looked over what they found. “With what you know, I don’t think it would do well for you to stay in Victor any longer than you need to, and I have an idea. An elven family from Elysium, the House of Aleazea, they were in town for the festival but are traveling down river by ship. If you seek passage to Port-of-Utopia this would be the most comfortable way to get there, or they could put you out at a fishing village somewhere along the way… Otherwise you are welcome to make your own way, but I would press you to leave town as quickly as possible. Cecilia is not one to brook trespasses.” They discussed about her involvement in the matter, and she pressed on them that her signature was forged by someone who was familiar with it, and that she would never condone the abduction of citizens of the Mainland. She offered for the heroes to stay the night at the manor and leave in the morning, and that she would help them in any way she could. “Champion and friends, if I could ask one further favour… if you should find yourselves in Elysium… I ask you seek an audience with the Elven Senate. Tell them of what the goblins have done… of Cecilia’s part in it. I’d send a message but I fear it’d mean my life.” The heroes asked how they could prove she had requested this of them, and she provided them with an amulet with the sigil of House Gyssemitore, her family. The heroes recognized the amulet as a match of one they had found in the safe of Lord Cecilia. ACTIVE QUESTS -Phryne is allowed to request a boon from the worshippers of Excelsion -Prepare for departure from Victor at noon on the morrow -Gain an audience with the Elven Senate of Elysium to present what they know of the goblin activity (perhaps using Lady Aevara of Victor's amulet) -Investigate the encroaching dark forces from the East for the forest spirit (party thinks that the magical and destructive properties of tealstone, these goblin factories and Ghazek from Gobelton have something to do with it) -Escort Edlee to Elysium